1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for converting a projected 3D video (or a 2D video after projection) into a stereo 3D video, particularly to an apparatus and method of separating an input projected 3D video into a left video and a right video by using human parallax theorem, and causing a user feel a 3D stereo video.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because well-known display apparatuses are two dimensional and the video taken by users are three dimensional, it is necessary to project the 3D video taken by users into a 2D space video, called projected 3D video, for displaying. Since the projected 3D video only has the direction of the X axis and the Y axis and lacks the direction of the Z axis representing the depth of the video, the human""s eyes can not feel the 3D stereo effect.
Usually a 3D video is formed due to different distances felt by the human left eye and right eye. For creating a 3D effect in a 2D display apparatus, the most simplest method of creating a 3D video is to use two cameras simulating the eyes of human beings. However, the creating method is costly, and thus it is not practical. Another method for creating a 3D video is to use single camera, and a computer programmer must adjust an application program to generate a left video and a right video by himself This method will impose a lot of workload on the computer programmer and is not compatible with the existing system.
In view of the above descriptions, the conventional methods and the apparatuses for converting a projected 3D video into a 3D stereo video do not meet the need in the market.
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of high cost and inconsistency with the existing system. To this end, the present invention provides a new 3D stereo transformation apparatus and method for solving the above drawbacks. The method uses the principle of parallax of human""s eyes to generate 3D effect for users. Firstly, input a projected 3D video. Secondly, divide the projected 3D video into a left video and a right video through computation. Thirdly, output the left video and the right video to a display apparatus through a rendering mechanism. The left video and the right video are generated by, for example, a software driver, and are independent from the form of input video. Because of the features, the present invention can be consistent with the existing system and will not raise workload of a computer programmer.
The present invention can also be implemented by hardware to speed up the displaying speed. For example, the present invention comprises a data storage mechanism, a left-video generating mechanism, a right-video generating mechanism and a rendering mechanism. The data storage mechanism is used to storage an input projected 3D video. The left-video generating mechanism is connected to the data storage mechanism for generating a left video. The right-video generating mechanism is connected to the data storage mechanism for generating a right video. The rendering mechanism is connected to the left-video generating mechanism and the right-video generating mechanism for outputting the left video and the right video to a display apparatus outside the present invention.